Winter Season

Yep its well and truely back to the winter type season of poker now the clocks have gone back and the days just get shorter and shorter. With less daylight i normally would expect to be playing more but so far this is not the case and i dont really mind how many hours i put in at the moment anyway.

Cash games progress seems consistent currently but i will make sure i get a fair bit of multis practise in before St Kitts anyway. Good news is the tournament structure is improved on last year with 15,000 starting chips compared to just 6,000 last year !

Semi drunk poker sessions on friday and tonight have resulted in level and a reasonable profit respectively. Favourite pot of the night for sure is below on 3,6$ NL.

6 handed utg raises to 18$ which i call from the sb after 1 caller with 66.
Flop is 8c8x6c which i check call 24$ from the raiser.
Turn is 10c and i check then raise a 48$ bet to $115ish to which to guy pushes all in another $100 with only AQoff and no clubs, NICE , always nice when they are drawing dead.

I've let my exercise slide a bit this week for no particular reason but i'm booked to venture into the gym for the first time in ages tommorrow so here's hoping i turn up.

Cash Games Blog

Once again i'm back playing cash and at least i seem to be enjoying it quite a bit. I dont think i've made much since monday (if anything) but im trying to reach a rake promotion on interpoker and that is now well within range. Whilst the enjoyment factor is there and the boredom factor doesnt creep in (and i dont lose too much :) ) this is where i will remain for the short term with a few select tournaments mixed in.

Unfortunately that doesnt leave much poker to blog about because , as ive said before, cash pots just arent that interesting to write about.

St Kitts seems very close now (just over 4 weeks) and im definitely starting to look forward to that a lot as it starts to get colder here and the nights draw in. Also i have my 30th birthday before that so the next month will probably fly by as well. Ordered my $ yesterday , not too much as its all inclusive and ill probably only play a few select side games a day. Also sorted out my parking near gatwick as well.

As long as i carry on as ive done the last couple of weeks i should be a fair bit fitter by St Kitts as well. Seeing as that seemed to pay dividends at the WSOP main event im determined to be fit in body and mind by the time i leave for St Kitts.

Laddies Poker Sold.....

At a terribly low price. Months back i would have been happy with a return in the region of £800-£900 for my shares in this horse. After its latest races i am very disappointed that today it was sold for 60,000 guineas (1 guinea = £1.05) . This is almost exactly what was paid for it originally, it had come on leaps and bounds of late so i was hoping for at least 80,000. Some people thought its real worth could have been as much as 200,000. Obviously this will come to light in the next season or so and i will await with anticipation to see just how well it does. The experience of owning shares in a racehorse has been nothing but fun (up until this sale price anyway) and i still think i wont be able to resist trying to get some in the next one ladbrokes do in the future anyway.

Too Many Multis

Think i made that mistake today , but if i had a bit more luck in one of the latter ones this would be a different post.

896 players , i lost a 150k pot 1010 vs K3std for 50k and 1010 vs K3std vs AJoff for 100k. That pot would have put me 7th/38. Unfortunately on the tribeca network these big multis only pay to 27 so i got nothing for my $54 entry fee + rebuy + addon. Obviously if i had even just won the side pot of 50k i would have still been in with a good shout for making the money. I had rode my luck plenty in the tournament but then thats only fair when i've had no luck in the other multis. To go out on such a pot hurt with $1087 just to 27th rising to $27k for 1st.

With some spare profit for the month i've decided to head back to cash tables a bit more and see if i can improve on them with a bit of patience being the tactics.

1 Place Short But Decent Money

Played several games tonight but only 1 was of any form. The same tournament as 2 or 3 days ago 18$ rebuy resulted in a 2nd place finish out of 425 runners for about $3500.

I wasnt as lucky in this one in terms of beats, but apart from 1 or 2 hands i got my chips with the better hand and won.

There are several really key pots in this game to my progress but the biggest were these 2:

Playing a 500k stack (about 3/5 left) and blinds 10,20k 5 handed i raise to 60k with J10std. Sb ok player flat calls with slightly higher stack and the flop is J,10,9. He leads out for over 100k and i decide to push all in due to the nature of the pot and flop and he calls with AA and i hold up.

That basically sealed my top 2 or 3 finish at worst with a monster stack but unfortunately the blinds were big so i couldnt take as much advantage as i might have liked after that pot.

Anyway when i finally went heads up almost even chips with 1,000,000 each i fancied my chances at 20,40k blinds against a fairly simple player in my opinion. Stayed about level for a while but was getting a feel for the guy and then came the monster exit hand when we were even in chips.

Blinds 20,40k and he flat call the 40k on the button. He had been folding the button often with trash so i know he will call a small raise and i have AA so only make it 90k in total. He flat calls and the flop is 9,6,2 with 2 clubs. I decide to check to see if i can induce a bet as hopefully he has hit and i can get some action. If he checks too i bet the turn as he prob missed and the pot is ok anyway. Anyway he bets the pot of 180k, i know im almost certainly ahead but instead of pushing all in i give him chance to hang himself by only raising another 200k on top of his bet. He flat calls so has a draw or part of the flop and the turn is a blank J. I push all in 700k and he has J9off and he holds up to win. I could have played this hand slightly different but i dont think the outcome would have changed and im a bit gutted to have not won the extra $2000 but sometimes it just aint meant to be. Still a decent win but the winning feeling aint as good as it could have been unfortunately.

So the patient play run continues, i must keep reminding myself of this so that i keep this style for the time being at least :)) .

More Relief, More Luck & More Progress

Even though i wasnt really in the mood to play much tonight or last night i played 2 games last night and a couple tonight. Made a small profit yesterday but got another decent result on the comeback tonight.

The £27 375 entrants game resulted in a 5th place finish which was good because i was short stacked from about 140 players left and just picked my spots well and hit a few 50/50s as well as a 40% beat when there were 41 players left (pays to 40). Patience again being rewarded and i know everything the last few games is pointing to me playing a lot tighter to get paid more, even if i dont enjoy it so much.

Unfortunately i wasnt happy with the pot i lost when there were 6 left when i moved in utg for 60k (blinds were 2000,4000 and ante) with 99 and a 40k stack decided to call off the blinds with A10std, yes he was short stacked but there is no holding he could be ahead of the way i had been playing (very tight) up to that point. Anyway i lost the 90k pot and was left crippled on 10k and i went out 2 hands later (1 place higher as the other shortie got eliminated) for £600.
£600 is good but with more than double that to 2nd and £2500 to 1st its a bit disappointing in the end.

Other good news on the day was my CPC money coming through of $1800 that i had been promised but i hadnt expected it for a few weeks at least.

Only thing im slightly worried about is im still not enjoying playing that much at the moment and ill just have to make sure i dont play much each day until this changes. No afternoon play seems to help with poker 100% reserved for the evening only at the moment.

Animal Instincts Finally Rewarded.....Surely The End Of The Bad Run

It had to come good sooner or later and i certainly feel like a bit of weight has been lifted from my shoulders after finally getting a reasonable cash. Only played 1 game yesterday and lost on a flip to have gone 5/26 with 100 entrants at 20euros, key thing im changing for the moment is to go back to basics and be more patient (well most of the time). Tonight i played a few games but only came good in the 18$ rebuy game i played with 480 entrants, finally finishing 4th for $1600. Normally the finishing place i would feel gutted and pissed off with $6k and $4k to 1st and 2nd, but after the run i've had of late its relief more than anything else. Funny thing was when i hit the last 15 or so players i thought to myself it would be nice to make the top 4 as anything below wasnt a significant cash for me.

Anyway i could probably write a book on key hands and stuff but i will put some examples down below.

Biggest pot by a mile was 1) anyway.

1) blinds 1200,2400 i raise utg to 7200 (i hav 75k stack) with AQoff (no diamonds) and i get called by middle position 100k+ stack that has been playing way too tight since he hit my table. This narrows down what i think he could hold and i put him on 2 high cards or a low pocket pair, his game was very ABC and i think he would have reraised the way he was playing with a monster.
Anyway flop is Jd10d8x and with a double gutshot out of position i know it could be tricky. I decide to put a smaller feeler bet out rather than my usual 60-70% of pot bet. 7k into 18k is the bet and he raises me but only to 20k in total. I take the 20k to be weak and cant resist pushing all in because i think he has missed the flop or even if he has hit there arent many holdings that would want to call a 67k in total bet all in. Anyway he calls with KdQd and i hold up with ace high on this 50/50 pot after the flop. This guy was not happy and could not understand my move and proceeded to stalk me for the rest of the tournament which for a change i laughed at and didnt get annoyed one bit by his actions.

That pot set me in 2nd of maybe 200 players left and i never looked in trouble to make the cash after that (pays to 27). I lost a 60k pot a few hands later JJ vs AQ which wasnt ideal but i probably hit about 50% of my 50/50s in the game and the 1 or 2 75-80% shots i had held up.

With 18 left i was top 3 or 4 and was trying to play tight for a change as there was a table nutter that you could easily get paid off against if you hit. Anyway i did hit 1 flush against him but unfortunately he priced me in on another pot with 11 players left and i missed both a flush and gutshot draw costing me a wad of chips. When it hit the final table i was only about 4th-6th with a few players having around the same stack. I sat tight and eventually doubled AQ vs A9 after 1 or too all ins b4 that.

The whole game when i overraised with middle to big hands i fortunately picked the right spots as never got called. These were KJstd, AJoff and 77. When we were down to the final 5 or 6 i also folded 22 preflop correctly when a button had raised and then 77 the next hand when utg had raised and got a caller. JJ and QQ were out there on those hands. My patient pick the right spot tactics were definitely being rewarded for a change.

With 5 left i missed one huge 600k pot when i called a small (gay) raise in the bb with J10std. Unfortunately the blinds were too big to not go all in on the 89K board, got chips in first but he had AK and i missed. I was left crippled and pushed the small stack well before eventually losing K8 vs AJ for a 400k pot that would have put me right back in but i finished 4th.

Hopefully more of the same to come in the near future, patience patience patience with 1 or 2 mad animal instinct moves does work and these are the tactics for now anyway.

Drunk, Hungover And Bored Poker

All reasons not to play poker and after a few crap sessions my bad run continues. I know i need to not play for a few days but im so bored at the moment when i dont play that its easier said than done. Anyway poker aint a cure for boredom at the moment as im finding the game so frustrating and boring itself, beat after beat, shit play after shit play rewarded especially against me.

The Run Continues

Without going into any detail i can confirm i've had 2 more days of the same crap with no sign of a turn around. Im actually playing well now but its difficult to be confident when the cards are so against me and shit play is being rewarded almost every time against me. Poker is a damn annoying game at the moment but i will turn it around and back into the game i love somehow.

A Few Hours Later........

I go back for more punishment with the same £10 and £20 sixpac at same time. This time the £10 runs as normal and i finish 2nd 77 vs 99 cant argue with that but example of the most annoying crap play pissing me off below from the £20 one.

4 players i have 1800 and in the sb with AK ...1500 stack flat calls 100 on the button with QJstd then instantly calls my all in. board Kxx10A, i think somebody makes these cards come out in the most annoying order possible at the moment to maximise my frustration. Anyway im left on 300 which i get back up to 800 before busting K8 vs A10 to bubble in 3rd, what a complete and utter joke. I know when im running bad because i cant control my temper in the chat box and frankly i couldnt give a shit what i type and how offensive it is when people make plays like this and get lucky on me every flaming time.

I Need To Win So Badly

Im fast losing interest in the game, im pretty much in one of those dips where it doesnt matter what you do, or how you play. Simple fact is you lose whatever happens. The main problem with this is it doesnt take much to completely lose focus after all the stupid outdraws. All ive played today is 2 x sixpacs and im already mad as hell even though im only £3 down. Get heads up in a £20 one and have a 2500 vs 3500 disadvantage, climb to 3200 avoiding preflop all ins, the blinds go up to 200,400 and he pushes 1st hand with Q4off, i call with KQ and the first card out is a 4 , jesus i know this is just a small variance and i win 3/4 times but its happening in every game or if im behind it just doesnt happen to reverse the variance. Example being im playing a £10 one alongside that and i lose QJ vs KQ short stack, then blinds go up and its about level at 100,200, donkey decides to backwards dummy me twice , once with A5 and the second time with J10off !!! I just cant play this game during the day after that crap and it only takes a couple of games like this to stop me playing for a few hours, at the end of the day there is no point playing when im not enjoying it and i know that. The problem is i want to play through this shit and get back on a good or even just a normal run of luck. Cant wait until later for more punishment, thank god for this blog to release this bollox or i would be a friggen nightmare to be around.

I Cant Win A Heads Up In An STT

I might as well go all in every hand and leave it totally to luck cos any play is wasted when i lose any preflop all ins way way too often (look at those 2 recent posts for examples).

£30 sixpac heads up 1500 vs 4500 i get up to 5000 vs 1000 avoiding any preflop all ins before the blinds go up and the following happens, mind you i should be used to it by now.

K6 vs K9 loses
96std vs Q10 loses
55 vs 78std loses
and finally when im down to 1200 i lose the only other preflop all in K4 vs 99.

I know this is no where near as extreme as the 2 posts prior but this is still taking the piss, where is the luck evening out where i win several of these preflop all ins in a row or at least more than i lose ???

Odds time 23% 15% split, 38%, 50% and 29%

Odds of losing all 4 preflop all ins heads up is approximately 1/7, come on gimme a break.

Just to top it off 1 minute later i bust in the 15k AKstd vs QQ vs 99 for a pot that would have put me 30th/230 ..310 entrants for £55.

End of Leaderboard Challenge

This just wasnt meant to be so im gonna stop here and regain focus on the month again.

I've probably played in excess of 150 stts over the last 4 days and i would have expected points for this challenge in the region of 3500-6000 if i was to base it on my ROI average. As it is i've got only about 2000 approximately (+700 from the weekend before the challenge was announced) which leaves me too far from the top to justify playing stts flat out any more. Its never nice to fail in a challenge like this but at least i've had a bad run only 2 days in so i haven't got beaten after 10-13 days of play. The only run like this i've had before was the multis bad run i had back in Feb for 2 to 3 months where i got beat just outside any big money in sooooo many multis, when nearly always holding the best hand. At least the real stinker only seemed to last 24-36 hours so hopefully i can move on and look to the rest of the month.

5 days of stts and what do i have to show for it, well im a massive £72 up WOW, i've made 450 mpp points which probably means i've earned about £50 in rakeback as well. I could see this as a waste of time but i dont at all and if the same promotion was to run again i certainly would have another bash at it again at least for a few days anyway.

Next stop has to be watching the England game tommorrow with lager a plenty and very little poker for sure. Heres hoping theres no drunken poker this weekend, highly unlikely methinks though!!!

Example of How Bad I'm Running in These STTs (PART 2)

Having just busted AA vs K7off with 4 left on one sixpac i focused on my remaining on to dominate with 4 left down to heads up then the same old shite comes again.

Again all of the pots below are when i have the other guy covered to bust him and there were no other preflop all ins between us.

Started at 4800 vs 1200 and this guy was as passive as they come.

Q3 vs A7 (36%)
J3std vs 64 (59%)
10,2 vs Q5 (36%)
K3 vs 95 (58%)

And

10,2std vs A9 for 5500 out of 6000 chips in play. (40%)

The odds on me losing all of the preflop all ins listed above in this heads up match were approximately 1 in every 24 times this occurred.

Come on pokergods im not one to harp on but give me some of this luck, this guy has to get this sort of heads up luck to beat me when its 50/50 if we were same standard and same chip stacks.

This is fast becoming a joke, how on earth can i lose two heads up so badly in the space of 24 hours. 1/24 and 1/40 shots win against me, come on play fair i dont expect to be lucky but i expect it even out a bit, especially given the number of games i've been playing lately.

Example of How Bad I'm Running in These STTs

Get to heads up in a £20 10 player game with a 7500 to 2500 advantage.

I then lose all these pots preflop where i have the guy covered to win:

A9 vs 94 75% fav
A8 vs 25 65% fav
A8 vs AQ 25% & 5% split
A3 vs A9 25% & 15% split
K10 vs A8 43%

Then lose only other pot 56off vs 9,10off to bust when he flops the straight.

Just done a rough calaculation of all those above and basically i would win about 39/40 times heads up against someone if these hands were the same every time. Other information relevant is that i did not have any other preflop all ins against this guy heads up in case it looks like i got to 2 or 3k then doubled i can assure any reader this was not the case.

I think my leaderboard challenge is going to fail , i cannot fight against luck like this and believe me this is just one example of plenty of shit thats happening again today following yesterdays joke. I will see how i am placed later or tommorrow and make a decision then whether to continue or let this go down to experience.

Betfair STT Leaderboard Challenge

Im in the middle of attempting to go for this, ive been playing $10 - £30 stts for the last few days the whole time when im playing poker online. Betfair are giving an $8000 package to the BAPT to the leader at midnight on the 15th October. I started well a couple of days ago but today has been a nightmare. So many preflop all ins lost its just against me. Anyway ive almost finished for the night and my luck may well be changing. An example of this is the last £10 10 player stt i've played in.

Level 1 i lost a 2k pot AQ vs AK on a ace high flop and was left with just 30 chips of the 1000 starting stack with 10 players still left. I proceeded to quad that into 120 with A2. I then pushed the 120 with Qc10s and the board came KsQsJsAsKc for a royal flush, trebling me to 360. I won another A10 vs dumb 9,10std call to go to 780. I then played the low stack well and hit one or 2 other 50/50 before going on to win it, LOL. Crazy day but poor results overall and my quest to move up the leaderboard fast will not be helped.

Holdem Blackjack Should Be Banned

All it friggen does is put me in such a mood that i dont wanna play holdem any more. Jesus was pretty much leading a $30 25 player with double value in the tournament the whole way only to crash out 5th (pays to 3). Its far too easy for your stack to swing both ways and this just fuks me off completely, compared to holdem a big stack is a pile of ass in my opinion. It also doesnt help when the lucky rock of a player that knocked me out of the WSOP on a 50/50 wins about 10 pots to every 1 i win against him at the final table despite me having the best hand over 50% of the time after 1 card. Absolute joke and those of you reading , no he is not a good player, he is a complete rock that got lucky here and at the WSOP. That table on day 3 of the WSOP was a joke, he was only 3 to my right so i couldnt target his and the other rocks (sat next to him 2 to my right) blinds even though they were free and nobody else at the table in a later position than me seemed to realise that which did surprise me.

Other tourneys complete rubbish as well and cash was an utter joke also, but thankfully at low stakes. So many rivers and dumb plays winning its a joke start to the month in all aspects.

Oh Dear Y Did I Log Back On ?

The correct answer was "to lose some money" :((
$50 multi i played at 10pm went really well until hand 2 when i stuck em in with AKstd and lost against KK. LOL it was one of those days oh yes. The $160 game i played started well but i probably played too agressively because i kept getting overraised later on when i couldnt get any decent cards at all.

The $50 sub to the BAPT (Betfair Asian Poker Tour) was much more promising but ended up being a crapshoot with 20 players left (paid 2 packages) and eventually after a run of being card dead i pushed with A6 and was out running into AJ in about 15-18th somewhere. Not to be but with the structure there wasnt gonna be too much poker unless i reached the last 5 or so.

Not the best of starts to the month from these first 2 posts of the month but then again i know ive got to a late stage in 2 or 3 of them today and just need that ounce of luck in 1 to place high or at least cash anyway :)) . Start a fresh tommorrow night i think.

Somebody Just Smacked Me in the Face

Well thats what it feels like anyway, absolute destruction of 2 big tournaments , both of which i was medium to large stacked to whole way through. All within 10 minutes with nothing to show.

EPT 143euros final, (subbed earlier). 88 entrants, good structure. Was in about 10th the whole way through including when we hit last 20. 10k stack at only 300 blinds. utg goes to 600 i make it 1800 with AK only for a 4500 stack to go all in with queens. three aces useless against the flopped queen and i lose a pot to have gone 4th/19. Payout 1 x EPT 5000 euro seat + 1600 euros cash. Residual cash 2nd 2000 euros down to 6th for 400 euros. Anyway next hand i have 4200 and flat call utg+1 with KK, button same stack goes all in with 44 and yes the 4 on the river comes for a pot to have got back to the 10k stack i had 2 hands before.

At the same time i was playing a medium stack in the $33 $50k added, 547 entrants. About 140 left. Within 2 minutes if the EPT exit i lose KK vs QQ for a medium sized pot to leave me crippled. Several minutes later i push with AK and what do i run into ? Only friggen aces and out 96th (pays to 60).
Some days you just know it aint gonna happen but i was running well in both of these games, only to bust them both within a 10 minute period on some big pots. AK vs AA was to go 38th/96 btw.

Its still early and there are some more decent games on but i cant play them at this moment, i need to cool down after that.